This text was written based on my experience as a psychotherapist at an experimental clinical center investigating the applications of altered states of consciousness in addiction therapy. I present here a description of the treatment developed at the center and the results obtained, offering some reflections on the aspects that make this type of therapy an effective and promising treatment.
By Manuel Villaescusa
What is Ideaa
Ideaa (Institute of Applied Amazonian Ethnopsychology) is a therapeutic center that uses rituals to reach altered states of consciousness for healing and personal development purposes. Since its founding three years ago, Ideaa’s users have primarily been people struggling with addiction who wished to change their addictive behavior, although people without substance dependency issues who want to undergo a process of personal development are now also attending with greater frequency. Ideaa is located deep in the Brazilian Amazon rainforest, a one-day canoe trip from the nearest village. Its purpose is to offer the opportunity to perform internal exploratory work, expanding the limits of one’s own perception and consciousness through the application of techniques traditionally used by Amazonian Indigenous peoples. These are based on the use of preparations like ayahuasca, made from psychoactive plants with which these peoples have been healing themselves, organizing their lives, and creating their culture throughout their millennial history. Due to the ability of these substances to help Indigenous people resolve difficulties and conflicts, the anthropologist J. M. Fericgla has called them “adaptogenic substances” (Fericgla, 1997). Amazonian cultures show that the teachings discovered during psychic incursions facilitated by these plants can become guiding principles—cognitive structures upon which to make fundamental changes in one’s own life. For this reason, the Ideaa center, by proposing to integrate Indigenous knowledge with contemporary Western psychotherapy techniques and therapeutic community living, is designed to foster greater self-knowledge, the development of more adaptive and meaningful values for the individual, the application of newly learned behaviors, and the practice of better ways of relating to others and to oneself.
Ideaa Program
The work plan at Ideaa integrates different methods and disciplines of self-knowledge and personal development. The daily activity program begins at dawn, starting with a meditation and yoga class, including breathing and deep relaxation exercises. Then comes breakfast, followed by the “good morning” meeting, where each person’s psychophysical state is reviewed and the day’s activities are proposed. At the end of the meeting and until lunchtime, maintenance and cleaning work is carried out at the center, including carpentry, gardening, and cooking. After lunch, which is primarily vegetarian, individual psychotherapy sessions are held, which each user attends once a week. In the afternoon, the last hours of sun and the cooler temperatures are used for sports and practicing tai chi. Afterward, dinner is served, and the day ends with everyone relaxing in the common areas or in their individual cabins.
Every Monday, the week begins with a weekly assessment meeting, where participants describe the week that has just passed, including their achievements and difficulties, evaluate their process of change, make decisions, and set goals for the coming week.
Every Saturday night, a psychonautic session with ayahuasca is held, and Sundays are dedicated to integrating the experience—first individually, by writing and drawing in a journal, and then by sharing and integrating the experience in a group meeting. During the stay at the center, which is recommended to be no less than three months, it is advised to do at least one retreat in solitude, fasting, and silence in the jungle for one or two days, taking ayahuasca and coming into contact with nature.
Also, once or twice a month, group excursions are made through the Amazon jungle, where one learns to better understand one of the ecosystems that enjoys the greatest biodiversity on the planet. Once every two weeks, group psychodramas are held, following the model of Hellinger’s family constellations—sessions where participants theatrically represent their family environment, discovering and working through the forces and conflicts found there, thus finding better psychological balance.
On a monthly basis, complementary therapies are followed, such as intestinal enemas using local plants and the “philomedusa bicolor” frog vaccine, treatments explained later.
Finally, daily coexistence between users and the center’s professionals, as well as with other local inhabitants, is an integral part of the treatment.
Therapeutic aspects of the treatment
The program allows for those who wish it a physical, mental, and spiritual transformation and development, as it is a holistic treatment that uses a combination of bodywork, psycho-spiritual exercises like yoga and meditation, individual and group psychotherapy, and life in a therapeutic community in close contact with nature, entering into communion with it through the ingestion of so-called master plants. This combination is ideal for treating addictions, pathological states where the consciousness of the person struggling with substance use is reduced and fixed to a few repetitive behaviors, disconnected from the awareness of one’s own body and spirit. We will now describe the different components of the program in detail.
Yoga, meditation, and tai chi.
There is numerous research documenting the effectiveness of treating addiction through the practice of yoga and meditation (Calajoe, 1986; Alexander et al., 1994; Shaffer et al., 1997; Kabat-Zinn, 2002), as well as through the use of altered states of consciousness (Frye, 1990; McPeake et al., 1991). In his book “Ayahuasca,” Ralph Metzner advocates for the development of centers that unite all these methods in a highly effective combination that allows for significant changes in participants (Metzner, 1999).
The daily practice of yoga, meditation, and tai chi allows one to first recover physical fitness, strength, and flexibility, which are often lost after having led an unhealthy lifestyle up to that point. Body awareness is developed, as is the ability to focus attention on bodily sensations and movements. Practitioners learn to cultivate their bodies, establishing a constructive relationship with them, as opposed to the self-destructive abuse of drug addiction. Mental faculties such as the capacity for attention or concentration are also developed. The states achieved through the practice of yoga can be considered altered states of consciousness comparable and complementary to the states reached through the use of entheogens. The results obtained by participants in the Ideaa program suggest that there is a phenomenon of synergy between the daily practice of yoga and meditation and the weekly psychonautic experiences with ayahuasca. The course of the entheogenic experience is strongly affected by the person’s psychophysical state (the so-called “set” of the experience). Having learned to develop the power of concentration and introspection with a flexible and relaxed body that knows how to adopt a correct posture and deep, conscious breathing seems to have a favorable influence during work with master plants. The psychonaut thus has training, knowledge, and techniques that are of great help when navigating an altered state of consciousness that entails all the difficulties of an incursion into unknown territories. One thus learns to optimally channel the intense psychic activity driven by the substance, which otherwise often overflows and can become distressing for the participant who lacks techniques to manage it.
Another aspect of the synergy between the practice of yoga and tai chi and the work done in ayahuasca rituals is that they all have in common the same learning process that leads toward an ever-greater capacity to relax physically and psychically. In participants’ accounts of their ayahuasca experiences, it is common to find descriptions of states of profound serenity, where enjoying inner silence and the ability to feel at peace, safe, and completely relaxed at the center of themselves comes as the culmination of a process that goes through phases of intense exposure to one’s own fears and anxieties. This relaxation process is particularly beneficial for people who want to treat substance dependency. Subjects who arrive at the center after years of substance abuse—both stimulants like cocaine and sedatives like opiates—have great difficulty relaxing and enjoying a serene state of consciousness. By compulsively abusing substances to escape the anxiety produced by, among other things, the impact of that very abuse on their lives, in addition to the frequent imbalances and difficulties that are often at the root of addictive behaviors, they have been undertaking a flight forward in which they themselves are their own pursuers. Having lost the ability to be at peace with themselves, they become slaves to their desires, needing to satisfy them immediately, with a very low level of tolerance for frustration. They find themselves in an infantile evolutionary stage, with little control over themselves and their constant cravings. In Ideaa users, this state manifests in initial difficulties in adapting to life at the center, in compulsive behaviors (for example, eating in excess or constantly making phone calls), and in a rejection of the proposed activities. By wanting to free themselves from the annoyance that making an effort or following a discipline would entail, instead of managing to be free, they find themselves increasingly prisoners of their impulses. Paradoxically, when they decide to make the daily effort to submit to disciplines that teach them to focus on relaxation, silence, and the control of the mind and body, it is then that they can begin to find their lost freedom. When they stop wanting to always satisfy their desires and therefore begin to discover and take care of their true needs and those of others, it is when they paradoxically manage to satisfy their most intimate desire: to be at peace with themselves and manage to be free from their anxiety. The states of profound serenity that can be accessed through ayahuasca rituals, especially while following daily training in meditation, relaxation, yoga, and tai chi, can be learned and applied to daily life, becoming a therapeutic path that allows those who suffer from addiction to free themselves from the constriction of their compulsions. These states of peace are very different from the peace provided by opiates. At the neurophysiological level, the price to pay for the sedation and pleasure provided by opiates is the multiplication of synaptic receptors that demand an ever-increasing level of exogenous substances in the blood, causing withdrawal syndrome when that level drops and a compulsion to repeat use. Perhaps because the active principle of ayahuasca is a substance endogenous to our organism, dimethyltryptamine or DMT, its use does not generate dependence or tolerance, and no cases of compulsive abuse of such a substance have been described. Ayahuasca also does not cause repetitive behaviors conditioned by the search for pleasurable stimuli like those caused by opiates. As we will see later, the experience facilitated by ayahuasca, unlike sedative drugs, usually also entails suffering and confrontation with emotions that are difficult to bear (not to mention its extremely unpleasant taste and its purgative properties). The joy or peace obtained at the end of the ayahuasca ritual are the fruit of intense work of introspection and resolution of internal conflicts, and this is not usually an experience that one wants to repeat often, as it requires great effort. This is the lesson that ayahuasca shares with the disciplines of yoga and tai chi: learning to be happy and achieve goals through sustained effort.
Community work
An important part of the treatment is life in community, placing emphasis on community work and collaboration in the operation and maintenance of the center. After breakfast, a meeting is held where the group gathers, the emotional and health state of each individual is verified, problems related to the practical difficulties of staying at the place are discussed, events and activities are announced, and the tasks that will have to be carried out during the day are decided.
These consist mainly of gardening, vegetable patch work, carpentry, construction and maintenance, cooking, and cleaning. The goal pursued is to instill a rhythm of work in people who are often unmotivated and apathetic, helping to cultivate an attitude of service to others that gradually modifies the egocentric tendency characteristic of those who suffer from addiction problems. Group work also favors the development of interpersonal relationships and the sense of integration and belonging to the community. Particularly important is the preparation work for the weekly ayahuasca ritual, where each person has their role and their task that complements that of the others: some take care of the music equipment and lighting, others of the decoration, others of the cleaning and preparation of the space where the ritual will be held. It can be said that the ritual begins from the moment one starts to prepare it, with the dedication and effort directed so that everything is in its place, ready for the proper functioning of the ceremony. Dedicating intention and energy to the preparation of the ritual (creating the so-called “setting” of the experience) is an optimal preparation that predisposes each person to receive as much as possible from the experience (preparing the “set” or individual state of mind).
Ayahuasca ritual
The ritual space is a circular structure with a sand floor and a straw roof. A mandala made with flowers and plants is placed in the center, with a flame in its middle. The participants sit in a circle around this center. The guide who directs the session distributes the substance while relaxation music is played, favorably predisposing people for the session. After an hour, when the substance has already taken effect, the music is turned off and silence remains, favoring an introspective journey. The ritual is structured in a flexible way; the main rules are not to disturb others and to respect the silence within the circle. It is possible to leave it if one feels like it, and walk through the garden, sit around the fire that has been prepared beforehand, or lie in hammocks arranged outside for observing the night sky, as most rituals are held at night. Usually, two or three doses are taken during each session, and moments of silence alternate with recorded and live music. Following the Indigenous traditions that direct the rituals with music and songs (icaros), the guide chooses evocative music that helps give shape to the experience, modulating emotions and visions. The ritual closes when the guide considers it appropriate, normally about five or six hours after the start.
Psychotherapeutic aspects of the ritual
The circle remains the center of the ritual, and it is advised to return to it after each exit to connect with others and center oneself in a safe place after having carried out explorations outside and inside oneself. The circle can be seen as a maternal space, evoking early stages of childhood development when the comforting presence of the mother is necessary to allow one to begin to detach from her and gradually venture into the outside world, thus developing a differentiated identity. The presence of fellow travelers allows one to leave the circle, venture into solitude, and face the intensity of finding oneself, with the security of knowing that it is possible to return to the center of the group at any moment. That security favors letting oneself be carried by the experience and thus entering into unexplored territory of consciousness. The group has the function of containing the strong emotions induced by the master plants, as if it were a lighthouse that signals the path toward serenity when the waters of the inner ocean become turbulent. In the entheogenic experience, the known limits of one’s own ego are transcended to access a level of consciousness unknown until then, which can be considered an evolutionary process. This process instills feelings of anxiety toward the unknown, and that is why it is important to include in the ritual a space and a use of time that provides security. The protective space is the circle formed by the group, and the time is ordered by clearly marked guidelines: start, intermediate doses, and end of the session. This framework contains the experience, helping to traverse the stages of de-structuring chaos through which participants usually pass. Thanks to the framework of the ritual, these chaotic stages can be resolved into healing restructuring processes (Fericgla, 1997), offering participants a better way to adapt to the conflicting circumstances of their existence. With this “setting,” the aim is to facilitate as best as possible the departure, the course, and the return of this therapeutic journey to another dimension of consciousness.
Participants’ experiences during the sessions
A broad distinction can be made between the types of experiences narrated by the participants. On one hand, there are the visions or memories that have to do with painful or conflicting aspects of their lives. On several occasions, participants relived during the rituals forgotten or repressed scenes from their past, realizing the impact these had and continued to have on their lives. These processes of biographical recapitulation also occurred occasionally during yoga sessions and were experienced as cathartic episodes. Among them, one could find scenes of family violence, sexual abuse, the death of loved ones, degrading aspects of the life of the person struggling with addiction such as thefts, lies, and psychophysical degeneration, pain caused to loved ones and to themselves, lost opportunities to improve their lives, and exposure to their own character flaws and shortcomings. This phase usually corresponds to the first experiences and presents itself as a cleansing process, in which participants are exposed to their past mistakes. Intense emotions usually accompany this process, especially guilt, fear, sadness, and regret. These emotions are experienced as the result of confronting the conflicting aspects that the person was fleeing through their habit, and they are often accompanied by somatic manifestations such as vomiting and diarrhea. The fictional character that compensated for inner shortcomings cracks, and participants go through a depressive phase where they are exposed to their low self-esteem. In the words of Grof:
“Under these circumstances (psychedelic experience), defense systems are particularly weakened and psychological resistances are diminished. The subject’s emotional responses increase dramatically, and profound abreactions and catharsis can be observed.” (Grof, 1980).
The first, more difficult sessions are followed by more hopeful sessions, where users manage to see their most positive aspects, their strengths and virtues, as well as the possibility of a better life ahead of them. The sessions can then culminate in states of great peace and serenity, already observed and described by researchers of psychedelic therapies as the final phase of these therapies (Grof, 1980). Most participants, upon finishing the treatment, mention having recovered or increased their desire to live and having transformed the way they view their lives, showing signs of greater optimism. The evolution observed in participants throughout the sessions suggests that ayahuasca rituals favor healing and evolutionary processes that drive the development of the subjects by helping them overcome the stagnation resulting from their addictive behaviors. These processes are then integrated and reinforced through individual and group therapy sessions.
Individual therapy sessions
In this context, a type of humanistic-oriented therapy has proven preferable, based on the therapist-user relationship and focusing on the application in the “here and now” of the insights and understandings developed during the ayahuasca work. The relationship between the therapists and the users of the center is very different from the type of therapist/patient relationship where they see each other once a week and their lives do not cross again until the following week. In the community life of the center, therapists and users live together for almost all hours of the day, collaborating in all activities, among which the ingestion of ayahuasca stands out. This living in community creates an intimate relationship in which it is difficult to take refuge behind roles or masks like “therapist” or “patient.” Coexistence favors the authentic encounter between people and thus facilitates the process of developing the potentialities intrinsic to each individual.
Group integration sessions
Each participant expresses and shares their own experience with the group. Therapists usually ask questions, provide clarifications, and offer feedback to each person. Integration sessions are considered a fundamental part of the process of change and learning. It is the moment to reflect on the entheogenic experience and understand what impact it can have on one’s own life, and what changes can be implemented in one’s own behavior as a result of the visions and insights developed during the ingestion of the master plants.
Complementary treatments
On a monthly basis, the frog remedy is applied—a traditional Indigenous cure used by more than 80 Amazonian Indigenous ethnic groups. A frog (philomedusa bicolor) that lives in the tree branches is captured. As a defense system, this frog sweats a milky and poisonous substance whose active principle is bufotenin, which is collected and preserved. By means of a burnt splinter, half a dozen incisions are made in the skin of the arm for men and the leg for women, where small doses of the frog poison are applied. After a few seconds, the first effects begin to be felt: nausea, chills, choking, and weakness, which can lead to fainting. It is common to vomit, which helps to diminish the effect of the substance. The experience at those doses is usually not visionary; rather, it involves going through a state similar to agony that lasts from 10 to 30 minutes. The ritual ends with a dip in the river to fix the experience and clear the mind. Going through such a test is something that strengthens the capacity for resistance, in addition to stimulating and strengthening the immune system. It is traditionally used as a vaccine for various diseases and as a remedy for when Amazonian Indigenous people feel weak and without strength, or to prepare for a hunt. At Ideaa, each person performs the ritual once a month for three months, and can repeat the cycle after 5 months. An important part of this process is the expedition into the jungle to search for the frog and obtain its poison. Each month, an expedition into the jungle is organized to foster awareness of nature and acclimatization to the Amazonian environment.
Intestinal enemas with herbal and seed infusions, mainly astringents like coffee, are also performed. The purpose is to purify the intestine of toxins and improve its capacity to extract nutritional substances from food.
Both treatments, the frog vaccine and the enemas, are of great utility for users with addiction problems, as they favor the purifying and fortifying process of their organism necessary to recover. They also turn out to be excellent means of preparation for ayahuasca rituals, since purifications and cleansings have traditionally always been performed before rituals to enhance their effect.
Conclusions
These observations, being preliminary to a more detailed study, agree with what has been published so far on similar studies, where participants have made changes toward healthier lifestyles, managing to overcome their addictions. In an investigation on ayahuasca users in Brazil, the psychiatrist C. Grob found that 73% of participants had suffered from addiction in the past, which in all cases had been completely resolved by participating regularly in ceremonies with ayahuasca (Grob et al., 1996). In my research on participants in ayahuasca rituals in London, they mentioned positive changes in their lives: addictive and unhealthy behaviors were replaced by healthier lifestyles, including physical exercise and proper nutrition. A greater capacity to feel integrated with the natural environment was also found, with an emphasis on a greater connection with the plant world (Villaescusa, 2002). In his research on more than one hundred participants in ayahuasca sessions in Spain, the anthropologist J. M. Fericgla observed an increase in the physical flexibility of the subjects, making them psychologically more flexible as well, relaxing the rigidity of their characters. As a consequence, he noted a positive change in the participants’ vision of the universe and their place in it, making them feel a greater connection between the world and themselves. The participants in his research developed what he calls a “dialogical consciousness,” the creation of a relationship with an “inner guide” that has a powerful therapeutic effect, decreasing maladaptation and increasing the subjects’ responsibility for their lives (Fericgla, 2001).
It is to be hoped that future research will manage to reveal more and more information about the way this powerful entheogen acts, and that ways to use it in programs that seek a synergy between different methods to achieve optimal results will continue to appear.
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